The Boy With Hawthorne at His Side
by Adrenne H
Summary: There's a war raging inside of Draco Malfoy, and Hermione Granger is caught in the middle. Between stolen moments and public fights, something has got to give.
1. Chapter 1

Draco stared around the corner at the girl staring at the door. She was pacing, but she stopped abruptly, then started to bite at her nails.

It was the first of two nights he had in detention. These detentions wouldn't be fun, but if he could find out what Granger was up to, it would be worth it.

The witch had been off from the very beginning of the term. She'd pop up, quite literally, in just the place you didn't want her to be and she was always out of breath. Once, Draco came across her in the library and sprawled all around her was an inordinate amount of homework. He was sure he saw both Divination and Arithmancy homework on the table, even though those classes were held simultaneously. 'Her idiot friends might not be able to figure this out,' he thought, 'but I can.'

So, he'd convinced Blaise to help him follow her and follow her they did - right into the girls lavatory. She'd screamed and placed a Jelly-Legs Jinx on the two of them. Then Professor Snape found them. Draco knew that Snape really couldn't have let him and Blaise off the hook for entering the girls bathroom, but he didn't expect Snape to also give her detention for cursing fellow students.

He noticed she was still just staring at the door. 'What is she waiting for,' he turned and placed his back on the wall, 'and where is Blaise?'

"There you are," he started as his friend appeared at the end of the corridor. "You're late."

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "I am exactly on time."

Draco scoffed. The duo headed towards the door. Draco made sure to slam his shoulder into the girl's as he walked into the room. "Move it, Granger!"

Hermione stiffened her jaw and stepped to the left of the door to let the other boy in. She wasn't sure how well she'd fair through these detentions with Draco.

"Look at her, Blaise, it's pathetic really," Draco mocked. Blaise looked neither amused or disgusted, but merely superior. Hermione opened her mouth retort but a fourth presence filled the door framed. Caretaker Filch held up a lantern.

"The buckets and brushes 'been charmed. They'll only work for whoever picks 'em up first. There's a lavatory down the hall, you'll get your water from there. I'll be back in three hours and this room better be sparklin'." He took a moment to glare and snarl at all three children then shuffled away. In the middle of the floor were three wooden buckets with three scrub brushes inside. Hermione, glad that she'd worn an old jumper, pushed up her sleeves and reached for the closest bucket.

As Hermione left, Draco took a moment to look around the room the empty classroom. Everything was either covered in dust or mould, or both, and it was revolting. He swallowed back his disgust.

**/**

Just over an hour and a half later the trio were finished with the objects in the room and all of the walls where they could reach and were ready to move on to the floors. Hermione used the back of her arm to wipe the sweat from her brow. She could only imagine how big her hair was and wanted to kick herself for forgetting to bring a hair elastic to hold it back. She let her bum fall to the heels of her feet and rounded her back, she was utterly exhausted.

"This is stupid," Draco muttered. "I should be at Quidditch practice. There's a skirmish tonight." He smirked to himself and looked over to Hermione. "I guess in my absence your pal Potter will finally stand a chance." He laughed at his own insult and looked to Blaise, who just looked completely unimpressed. Hermione huffed.

"I'm sure Harry's fine. Tell me, how much did it cost for you to buy your way onto the team, again?"

Draco tensed his jaw and sneered, but didn't respond. Instead he picked up the bucket full of dirty water and marched toward the lavatory. If he had to hear that damned insult one more time he was going to crucio someone. Hermione looked pleased with herself. Blaise let a small smile slip. Even though he was always secretly amused when someone bested Malfoy like that, he still felt the need to defend him.

"You know," he started, his voice calm and smooth, "he didn't ask his father for any of that." Hermione plunged her brush into the water and didn't respond, but she was listening. "Last year, when he heard he'd made the team…" He stopped, not wanting to embarrass Draco too much. "Well, he was livid when he saw all of the new brooms at first practice." Hermione paused in her scrubbing, but only for a second. It didn't matter, there was still no way _she_ was going to feel bad for Draco _Malfoy. _Then, as if to add just the tiniest amount of salt to the wound, and in the most innocent of tones, Blaise added, "But, of course, who could do anything _other _than send their gratitude to _Lord Malfoy_." Moments later Draco came back in with a bucket of clean water, muttering something about not being able to charm the buckets to refill themselves.

Hermione concentrated on scrubbing, but she couldn't quiet her thoughts. 'So what if he didn't want to be bought onto the team? So what if he has a controlling father? It doesn't change the fact that he's a complete and total arse the rest of the time.'

She kept scrubbing.

'Harry had a terrible home life, and he wasn't a jerk. Ron had Fred and George always trying their best to humiliate him, and he didn't go around calling her a -' She stopped her train of thought and slammed her brush into the water. She needed out of the room, so, even though her water wasn't really dirty, she picked up her bucket and left.

Draco started at the door. 'Good riddance,' he thought. He went back to scrubbing his area of the floor. A few minutes later, Blaise decided it was his turn to clean out his water, and left the room. Naturally, not even a minute later, Hermione reentered. She sat her bucket down and focused on cleaning, stone by stone.

"So tell me, Granger," Draco started, "how is it that you can take both Arithmancy _and _Divination? Because I was under the impression that they were both held at the same time…are they not?"

"I don't believe that's any of your business." She tried to not make eye contact, hoping he would drop the subject. Draco grinned, he could tell he was getting to her.

"I guess it's a good thing that I've never been one to mind my own, then?"

"Actually, it's a horrible thing."

Draco laughed. Hermione tried not to look at him quizzically. Did he just laugh at her joke? Draco could hear Blaise coming up on the door.

"Well, just so you know, I will find out whatever it is you're hiding." The laughter in his voice was gone.

Later, after Filch returned and sent them on their way to their dorms, Draco noticed Hermione heading not toward the Gryffindor Tower, but toward the Library. He watched her stop and pull out a long, thin, golden chain. He saw the pendant at the end and smiled.

**Author's Notes:**

**1. The title is a play on the words taken from The Smiths. Their song, titled _The Boy with a Thorn in His Side, _was the inspiration for this story. Subsequently, any further song references (unless otherwise stated) will be from them, or their singer gone solo, Morrissey. If there is any interest, I have a playlist for this song, made up of songs from these two artists and I can post the link to it on Rdio.  
**

**2. Eep! My first story posted on here, I really hope you all enjoyed it. I know that it seems to be a little simple, but I plan for it to 'grow' with it's characters. So just stick with it! Also, I'm always super grateful for any reviews or feedback, so please feel free to give me a shout! **

**Always,**

**Adrenne**


	2. Chapter 2

Blaise Zabini had heard enough. Draco and Hermione hadn't stopped bickering since they stepped into the dungeon that housed their second night of detention, and he was tired of it. It took Draco almost five minutes to realized that he and Hermione were alone together. Up until that point, they'd only been shooting insults back and forth. Draco smiled and Hermione stopped mid-insult. "What?"

Draco dropped the chains he was polishing and confidently closed the space between them. Hermione froze, she and Draco had never been so close before. She'd really never been like that with any boy before. There were only a few inches between the two of them. She didn't know what to do. Her heart rate sped up, her mouth dried out. She wanted to push him away, but couldn't quite get the signal to her arms. She wanted to step back, but couldn't convince her legs to do so.

Draco was still smiling. He'd seen the panic in her eyes, he'd noticed the change in her breath. Catching her off guard was working. He was a little surprised though, he knew he had that effect on girls. He'd seen it in Pansy and Daphne, but to elicit the same response out of Granger… he was good. Slowly, he reached his hand to her neck, intending to trace her collar bone down to the gold chain poking out from the top of her shirt.

Hermione knew his hand was moving. 'Move,' she screamed in her head. Then it clicked, the Time-Turner. Her hand flew up like lightning and knocked his out of the way, causing him to stumble back.

"I knew it," he cried. Hermione shuddered in an attempt discard Malfoy from her flesh's memory. It didn't work. "You have a Time-Turner," his voice was lower that time. She huffed and turned back to her chains, fully intending on ignoring him.

"Oh, don't play daft with me little girl." He reached out and grabbed her elbow to spin her around. "How did you end up with a Time-Turner?" There was a tone of indignation in his used of the word 'you'.

"How about, I'm smarter than you?" Draco just stared at her. Hermione sighed, he wasn't going to let up. "I got it at the beginning of the year so that I could take as many classes as possible. Im not supposed to tell anyone about, not even Harry or Ron, so please, _please_ don't tell anyone."

Draco smiled victoriously. He knew she'd been up to something, and it was even better than he'd hoped. He sauntered around for a moment before stopping in front of her. "So, if people were to find out - you'd be in serious trouble." Hermione reluctantly nodded. "You'd probably even get it taken away…" She tensed her jaw.

"What is it you want, Malfoy." Her words came out through clenched teeth. He reached out to touch a curl of her hair. She clenched her fists.

"I've never traveled through time," he let the curl slip from his fingers. "I imagine it'd be dead useful." Hermione stepped away from him.

"I can't overuse it," she started as she pulled it out from her blouse and examined it as she spoke. "It will affect your aging, and every time you go back, you tamper with time and risk messing things up." She looked up to Draco, her eyes ripe with anger. "I will _not _let you use it alone."

"Well that's no fun."

"I'm serious, Draco. I'd rather give it up than give it to you."

"Fine…" He paused, thinking things over in his head. "Can we use it now?" He flexed his eyebrows once, and smiled. Hermione scowled and shoved the Turner back under her shirt.

/

The following Saturday, Hermione waited in a far corner of the library for Draco. Her, Ron, and Harry had been studying - well, she was, anyway, - and she excused herself, claiming to need more books. They didn't even think of questioning her.

She was nervous. She was lying to her friends, misusing something she was trusted with, _and_ she was doing it for Draco Malfoy. 'Because of, not for,' she reminded herself. She noticed Draco approaching and steeled herself.

"Granger," he greeted as he bowed sardonically. She struggled to hold down her lunch.

"Lets just get this over with." She led him out of a nearby side door and into an empty corridor. Still, she checked to make sure they were alone. It amused Draco to see her looking around frantically and just generally being stressed about the whole situation. It did not amuse Draco when she stepped closer to him, bringing them closer than even he had in the last detention. At least then he was in control of the situation, and knew he wouldn't let his chest actually touch hers. But she seemed to be unaware of where her body was, and was much too informal for his liking. Then she pulled the chain out from her blouse and started to try and wrap it around the both of them. Draco realized they'd have to practically hug for this to happen. His stomach churned and he reached out the grab her wrist.

"What are you doing?" His voice came out a bit more panicked than he would have liked.

"We both have to wear it," Hermione started. She then realized that she knew how it worked and he didn't. She smiled. "What's the matter, Draco? Don't you know how a Time-Turner works?" She was taunting him. She glanced at the arm holding hers. His sleeves were pushed up to his elbows and she could see the faint pink scar running down his forearm. She knew he'd milked that accident for all it was worth, but she also knew that it still must have really hurt to get slashed by a hippogriff.

When the accident occurred, Hermione had begged Draco not to tell his father. She knew what it would mean for Buckbeak, and possibly Hagrid, if he did. To his credit, he didn't want to.

"_You think I want to be the little prat who runs to his daddy over a scratch? Of course not! But do you know what would happen if he found out and it didn't come from me?"_

Hermione hadn't really been able to argue with him after that. Though, she did wonder why it was he played it up afterwards though.

Draco noticed her gaze and quickly dropped her wrist. He rubbed the palm of his hand on to his trousers.

"An hour, then," she asked. Draco sneered.

"An hour's no fun. Let's go back to this morning, right after breakfast." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Two hours," she stated, then twisted the Turner.


End file.
